1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rich text medium displaying method for displaying an image of each rich text medium of a multimedia title at a display time of the rich text medium specified in a scenario of the multimedia title to reproduce the multimedia title, and relates to a picture information providing system, in which a server provides a title reproducing terminal each rich text medium of the multimedia title as picture information to display an image of the rich text medium at a display time of the rich text medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
A multimedia title is formed of various media (or materials) such as one or more moving pictures, one or more still pictures, one or more rich texts, one or more sounds and the like, and a displaying time of each medium of the multimedia title is specified in a scenario.
The rich text denotes a document in which characters, figures and ruled lines expressed by various colors and various fonts are drawn, and the rich text means a text having a rich expression power. For example, when a text in which characters of many sizes are included is made by using a word processor, the writing is classified into the rich text. In contrast, a text in which characters of a single font are included is called a plain text.
2.1. Previously Proposed Art
A device for outputting multimedia data (or a multimedia title) to a reproducing device at a specified time is disclosed in Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 6-214689 (1994), and an explanatory view showing an output of multimedia data in the device is shown in FIG. 1 as a first conventional example of a picture information providing system and a composing medium displaying method.
As shown in FIG. 1, an application program 1 of a computer system and a data outputting device 2 for outputting multimedia data to a reproducing device are provided, and the data outputting device 2 is composed of a data buffer 3 for temporarily storing multimedia data, an internal clock 4, a register 6 for setting an output time, a comparator 5 for comparing the output time of the register 6 and a time of the internal clock 4, and a valve 7 for outputting the multimedia data of the data buffer 3 to the reproducing device according to a detecting result of the comparator 5.
In the above configuration, after a reproducing time of the multimedia data is set in the register 6, the multimedia data is transmitted from the application program 1 to the data buffer 3. The multimedia data stored in the data buffer 3 is not output to the reproducing device during a closing time period of the valve 7. In the comparator 5, the output time of the register 6 is always compared with a current time of the internal clock 4. When current time of the internal clock 4 reaches the output time of the register 6, the valve 7 is opened, and the multimedia data stored in the data buffer 3 is output to the reproducing device to display the multimedia data.
Therefore, the multimedia data can be output from the data outputting device to the reproducing device at a time specified in a scenario.
Next, a second conventional example of a picture information providing system and a composing medium displaying method is described.
The inventors of this specification have developed a picture information providing system in which a multimedia title stored in a server is provided for a reproducing terminal. This system is shown in FIG. 2.
When a user desires to watch a multimedia title at a particular output format, a request of the multimedia title is sent with the particular output format from a reproducing terminal 9 to a server 8, a scenario of the multimedia title is sent from the server 8 to the reproducing terminal 9, so that a reproducing operation of the multimedia title is started in the reproducing terminal 9. Thereafter, to display composing media of the multimedia title at the particular output format at a display time specified in the scenario, the reproducing terminal 9 requests of the server 8 that the server 8 sends each composing medium of the multimedia title to the reproducing terminal 9 at a specific time determined according to the display time of the composing medium. Thereafter, in the server 8, each composing medium included in the multimedia title is converted into a display image according to the particular output format, and data of the display image is sent from the server 8 to the reproducing terminal 9. Therefore, the display image of each composing medium converted at the particular output format is displayed in the reproducing terminal 9 at the display time of the composing medium. The particular output format specifies a resolution degree, a display color, a display size and the like for the display image.
In general, assuming that the conversion of each composing medium into a display image at an output format is performed in a reproducing terminal, a data processing time-length (or a data expanding time-length) required to convert each composing medium into the display image depends on the performance of terminal resources (a central processing unit, a memory, an data expanding accelerator and the like) in which the data conversion is performed. To reduce the processing performed in the reproducing terminal 9 and to shorten the data expanding time-length in the picture information providing system shown in FIG. 2, it is required that the conversion of each composing medium into the display image is performed in the server 8 having a high processing performance.
Also, assuming that all composing media of the multimedia title are expanded in advance to a plurality of display images in the server 8 according to an output format specified in each reproducing terminal and assuming that the display images are stored in the server 8, a large capacity of memory is required of the server 8, so that the data expanding operation cannot be efficiently performed in the server 8. To efficiently perform the data expanding operation in the server 8, when the reproducing terminal 9 requests of the server 8 that the server 8 sends each composing medium of the multimedia title to the reproducing terminal 9 at the specific time, the composing medium is expanded to a display image according to the particular output format in the server 8, and data of the display image is sent from the server 8 to the reproducing terminal 9. Therefore, any large capacity of memory is not required of the server 8.
2.2. Problems to be Solved by the Invention
However, because an expanding time-length is required to convert each composing medium of the multimedia title into a display image, unless the reproducing terminal 9 requests the composing medium of the server 8 while considering the expanding time-length of the composing medium, the display image of the composing medium cannot be correctly displayed in the reproducing terminal 9 at the display time specified in the scenario. Therefore, it is important that each composing medium expanded according to a particular output format is correctly displayed in the reproducing terminal 9 at the display time specified in the scenario. Also, it is important that the expanding time-length for each composing medium is shortened.
A first object of the present invention is to provide, with due consideration to the drawbacks of such a conventional picture information providing system and a conventional composing medium displaying method, a picture information providing system and a rich text medium displaying method in which each rich text medium (corresponding to each composing medium in the prior art) of a multimedia title is expanded to a display image at a particular output format and is correctly displayed at its display time as picture information.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a picture information providing system and a rich text medium displaying method in which an expanding time-length required to convert each rich text medium of a multimedia title to a display image is shortened.
The first object is achieved by the provision of a rich text medium displaying method, comprising the steps of:
calculating a medium expanding time-length required to expand each particular rich text medium of a particular multimedia title to a display image suitable to a particular output format of a title reproducing terminal in a server;
sending a scenario specifying a display time of each particular rich text medium and the medium expanding time-lengths of the particular rich text media from the server to the title reproducing terminal;
recognizing the display time of each particular rich text medium according to the scenario in the title reproducing terminal;
sending a medium expanding request, which indicates to expand one particular rich text medium to a display image and to send the display image of the particular rich text medium to the title reproducing terminal at the display time of the particular rich text medium, to the server at a specific time earlier than the display time of each particular rich text medium by the medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium;
converting one particular rich text medium to a display image suitable to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal in the server each time the medium expanding request is received;
sending the display image of each particular rich text medium from the server to the title reproducing terminal at the display time of the particular rich text medium; and
displaying the display image of each particular rich text medium at the display time of the particular rich text medium to reproduce the particular multimedia title.
In the above steps, a medium expanding time-length corresponding to a particular output format of a title reproducing terminal is calculated in advance in a server for each particular rich text medium of a particular multimedia title. When the server receives an expanding time-length request from a reproducing terminal, a scenario and the medium expanding time-lengths of the particular rich text media are sent to the reproducing terminal. Therefore, the reproducing terminal can recognize a display time of each particular rich text medium and can send a medium expanding request indicating the expanding of each particular rich text medium to the server before the display time of -the particular rich text medium in anticipation of the medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium. That is, the reproducing terminal sends a medium expanding request to the server at a specific time earlier than the display time of each particular rich text medium by the medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium. When the server receives the medium expanding request for each particular rich text medium, the particular rich text medium is expanded to a display image suitable to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal in the medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium, the display image of the particular rich text medium is sent to the title reproducing terminal at the display time of the particular rich text medium, and the display image of the particular rich text medium is displayed at the display time of the particular rich text medium. Therefore, the particular multimedia title is reproduced.
Accordingly, because the reproducing terminal can send a medium expanding request to the server before the display time of each particular rich text medium in anticipation of the medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium, each particular rich text medium of the particular multimedia title can be reproduced just at its display time.
It is preferred that the step of calculating a medium expanding time-length comprise the steps of:
decomposing each particular rich text medium into a plurality of objects;
measuring an object expanding time-length, required to expand one object of one particular rich text medium to a drawing image, for each object of the particular rich text media; and
adding up the object expanding time-lengths of the objects of one particular rich text medium for each particular rich text medium to obtain the medium expanding time-lengths of the particular rich text media.
In the above steps, because the medium expanding time-length of each particular rich text medium is calculated by decomposing the particular rich text medium into a plurality of objects, the medium expanding time-length can be efficiently calculated.
It is also preferred that the step of measuring an object expanding time-length comprise the steps of:
dividing a plurality of operations required to convert the objects of each particular rich text medium into operations not depending on the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal and image-drawing operations depending on the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal;
preparing an image-drawing operation tree of the image-drawing operations depending on the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal for each particular rich text medium; and
expanding each object of one particular rich text medium to a drawing image according to one image-drawing operation of one image-drawing operation tree for each particular rich text medium to detect the object expanding time-lengths of the objects of the particular rich text media.
In the above steps, because a plurality of image-drawing operations arranged in an image-drawing operation tree are prepared for each particular rich text medium, the medium expanding time-length can be efficiently calculated by performing the image-drawing operations one after another.
It is also preferred that the step of calculating a medium expanding time-length comprise the steps of:
storing an object expanding time-length, required to expand an object of one particular rich text medium to a drawing image suitable to each of a plurality of output formats, for each object of the particular rich text media;
selecting a plurality of particular object expanding time-lengths of the objects of the particular rich text media corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal from the stored object expanding time-lengths corresponding to the output formats; and
adding up the particular object expanding time-lengths of the objects of one particular rich text medium for each particular rich text medium to obtain the medium expanding time-lengths of the particular rich text media.
In the above steps, because object expanding time-lengths of objects of the particular rich text media corresponding to each of a plurality of output formats was calculated in the past and are stored, the medium expanding time-length of each particular rich text medium can be efficiently calculated by using the object expanding time-lengths of the particular rich text medium.
It is also preferred that the step of calculating a medium expanding time-length comprise the steps of:
storing an object expanding time-length, required to expand an object of one particular rich text medium to a drawing image suitable to each of a plurality of output formats, in a storage medium for each object of the particular rich text media;
checking whether or not a plurality of particular object expanding time-lengths of the objects of each particular rich text medium corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal are included in the stored object expanding time-lengths of the particular rich text medium corresponding to the output formats;
measuring a particular object expanding time-length of each object of one particular rich text medium corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal in cases where the particular object expanding time-lengths of the objects of the particular rich text medium corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal are not included in the stored object expanding time-lengths of the objects of the particular rich text media corresponding to the output formats;
adding up the particular object expanding time-lengths of the objects of the particular rich text medium to obtain the medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium; and
storing the particular object expanding time-lengths of the objects of the particular rich text medium corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal in the storage medium.
In the above steps, in cases where the particular object expanding time-lengths corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal are not included in the object expanding time-lengths corresponding to each of a plurality of output formats stored in the storage medium, because the particular object expanding time-lengths corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal are measured and stored in the storage medium, the efficiency for the calculation of the medium expanding time-length of each particular rich text medium can be gradually heightened as the object expanding time-lengths corresponding to one output format are stored in the storage medium.
It is also preferred that the step of calculating a medium expanding time-length comprise the steps of:
checking whether or not it is possible to decompose each particular rich text medium into a plurality of objects;
directly expanding one particular rich text medium to a display image in cases where it is impossible to decompose the particular rich text medium into a plurality of objects; and measuring a medium expanding time-length required to
directly expand the particular rich text medium to the display image.
In the above steps, because one particular rich text medium is directly expanded to a display image even though it is impossible to decompose the particular rich text medium into a plurality of objects, a medium expanding time-length for any type of rich text medium can be calculated.
It is also preferred that the step of calculating a medium expanding time-length comprise the steps of:
checking whether or not it is possible to decompose each particular rich text medium into a plurality of objects; storing a medium expanding time-length, required to expand one particular rich text medium to a display image according to each of a plurality of output formats in cases where it is impossible to decompose the particular rich text medium into a plurality of objects; and
selecting a particular medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal from the stored medium expanding time-lengths corresponding to the output formats.
In the above steps, even though it is impossible to decompose a particular rich text medium into a plurality of objects, because a particular medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium is stored, the expanding of the particular rich text medium to a display image can be easily performed at its display time by using the stored particular medium expanding time-length.
It is also preferred that the step of calculating a medium expanding time-length comprise the steps of:
checking whether or not it is possible to decompose each particular rich text medium into a plurality of objects;
storing a medium expanding time-length, required to expand one particular rich text medium to a display image according to each of a plurality of output formats, in a storage medium in cases where it is impossible to decompose the particular rich text medium into a plurality of objects;
checking whether or not a particular medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal is included in the medium expanding time-lengths stored in the storage medium;
directly expanding the particular rich text medium to a display image in cases where a particular medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal is not included in the medium expanding time-lengths stored in the storage medium;
measuring a particular medium expanding time-length required to directly expand the particular rich text medium to the display image; and
storing the particular medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal in the storage medium.
In the above steps, in cases where it is impossible to decompose a particular rich text medium into a plurality of objects and in cases where a particular medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal is not included in the medium expanding time-lengths corresponding to each of a plurality of output formats stored in the storage medium, because the medium object expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal is measured and stored in the storage medium, the efficiency for the detection of the medium expanding time-length of each particular rich text medium not decomposed can be gradually heightened as the medium expanding time-lengths corresponding to one output format are stored in the storage medium.
To achieve the second object, it is also preferred that the step of calculating a medium expanding time-length comprise the steps of:
decomposing each particular rich text medium into a plurality of objects;
expanding each object of one particular rich text medium to a drawing image suitable to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal for each particular rich text medium;
selecting one or more specific drawing images of specific objects of a specific rich text medium from the drawing images of the particular rich text media;
storing the specific drawing images of the specific objects of the specific rich text medium in a storage medium;
measuring an object expanding time-length, required to expand one object of one particular rich text medium to a drawing image, for each object of the particular rich text media other than the specific objects of the specific rich text medium;
setting an object expanding time-length of each specific object to zero; and
adding up the object expanding time-lengths of the objects of one particular rich text medium for each particular rich text medium to obtain the medium expanding time-lengths of the particular rich text media, and
the step of converting one particular rich text medium comprises the steps of:
specifying the specific objects according to the specific drawing images stored in the storage medium;
expanding each of the objects other than the specific objects to a drawing image according to one image-drawing operation;
combining the drawing images of the objects of one particular rich text medium into a display image of the particular rich text medium for each particular rich text medium other than the specific rich text medium; and
combining the drawing images of the objects of the specific rich text medium into a display image of the specific rich text medium while using the specific drawing images of the specific objects stored in the storage medium.
In the above steps, because one or more specific drawing images of one or more specific objects of the specific rich text medium are stored in a storage medium, a time-length required for the combination of the drawing images of the objects of the specific rich text medium into a display image of the specific rich text medium can be shortened by using the specific drawing images of the specific objects stored in the storage medium.
It is preferred that the step of selecting one or more specific drawing images comprise the steps of:
detecting frequency in use of each drawing image; and
setting one or more drawing images of high frequencies as the specific drawing images.
In the above steps, because one or more drawing images of high frequencies are set as the specific drawing images, a data volume of the specific drawing images stored in the storage medium can be suppressed.
To achieve the second object, it is also preferred that the step of calculating a medium expanding time-length comprise the steps of:
decomposing each particular rich text medium into a plurality of objects;
preparing an image-drawing operation tree of a plurality of image-drawing operations, required to convert the objects of one particular rich text medium into a plurality of drawing images according to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal, for each particular rich text medium;
expanding each object of one particular rich text medium to a drawing image suitable to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal according to one image-drawing operation of one image-drawing operation tree corresponding to the particular rich text medium for each particular rich text medium;
estimating an importance degree of each image-drawing operation of a specific image-drawing operation tree according to the arrangement of the image-drawing operations in the specific image-drawing operation tree;
detecting one or more specific image-drawing operations having high importance degrees from the image-drawing operations of the specific image-drawing operation tree;
specifying a specific drawing image obtained by expanding one specific object according to one specific image-drawing operation for each specific image-drawing operation;
storing the specific drawing images of the specific objects in a storage medium;
measuring an object expanding time-length, required to expand one object of one particular rich text medium to a drawing image, for each object of the particular rich text media other than the specific objects of a specific rich text medium;
setting an object expanding time-length of each specific object to zero; and
adding up the object expanding time-lengths of the objects of one particular rich text medium for each particular rich text medium to obtain the medium expanding time-lengths of the particular rich text media, and
the step of converting one particular rich text medium comprises the steps of:
specifying the specific objects according to the specific drawing images stored in the storage medium;
expanding each of the objects other than the specific objects to a drawing image according to one image-drawing operation;
combining the drawing images of the objects of one particular rich text medium into a display image of the particular rich text medium for each particular rich text medium other than the specific rich text medium; and
combining the drawing images of the objects of the specific rich text medium into a display image of the specific rich text medium while using the specific drawing images of the specific objects stored in the storage medium.
In the above steps, because one or more specific drawing images having high importance degrees are selected from drawing images of objects of a specific rich text medium and are stored in a storage medium, a time-length required for the combination of the drawing images of the objects of the specific rich text medium into a display image of the specific rich text medium can be shortened by using the specific drawing images of the specific objects stored in the storage medium.
To achieve the second object, it is also preferred that the step of calculating a medium expanding time-length comprise the steps of:
detecting that the display times of a plurality of specific rich text media selected from the particular rich text media agree with each other;
decomposing each specific rich text medium into a plurality of objects;
preparing a specific image-drawing operation tree of a plurality of specific image-drawing operations, required to convert the objects of one specific rich text medium into a plurality of drawing images according to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal, for each specific rich text medium;
preparing a combined image-drawing operation tree by combining the specific image-drawing operation trees while setting each specific image-drawing operation common to two or more specific image-drawing operation trees as one specific image-drawing operation in the combined image-drawing operation tree;
measuring an object expanding time-length of one object required to expand the object to a drawing image according to one specific image-drawing operation for each specific image-drawing operation of the combined image-drawing operation tree; and
adding up the object expanding time-lengths of the specific image-drawing operations of the combined image-drawing operation tree to obtain a medium expanding time-length of the specific rich text media, and
the step of converting one particular rich text medium comprises the step of:
converting the specific rich text media to a combined display image obtained by expanding objects of the specific rich text media according to the specific image-drawing operations of the combined image-drawing operation tree.
In the above steps, even though the display times of a plurality of specific rich text media agree with each other to simultaneously display a plurality of display images of the specific rich text media, because a combined image-drawing operation tree of specific image-drawing operations corresponding to a combined rich text medium obtained by combining the specific rich text media is prepared from a plurality of specific image-drawing operation trees corresponding to the specific rich text media while each specific image-drawing operation common to two or more specific image-drawing operation trees is set as one specific image-drawing operation in the combined image-drawing operation tree, each object common to two or more specific rich text media is set as one object in the combined rich text medium. Therefore, because a plurality of display images of the specific rich text media are not produced but a combined display image of the specific rich text media is produced, each specific image-drawing operation common to two or more specific image-drawing operation trees is performed only once, so that a time-length required to obtain the combined display image of the specific rich text media can be shortened.
To achieve the second object, it is also preferred that the step of calculating a medium expanding time-length comprise the steps of:
decomposing each specific rich text medium into a plurality of objects;
preparing an image-drawing operation tree of a plurality of image-drawing operations, required to convert the objects of one particular rich text medium into a plurality of drawing images according to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal, for each particular rich text medium;
measuring an object expanding time-length of one object required to expand the object to a drawing image according to one image-drawing operation for each object of the particular rich text media;
dividing the image-drawing operations of each image-drawing operation tree into a first group of image-drawing operations corresponding to first objects of one particular rich text medium and a second group of image-drawing operations corresponding to second objects of the particular rich text medium on condition that the first group of image-drawing operations has no dependence relationship with the second group of image-drawing operations;
adding up the object expanding time-lengths of the first group of image-drawing operations of one image-drawing operation tree corresponding to one particular rich text medium to obtain a first medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium for each particular rich text medium; and
adding up the object expanding time-lengths of the second group of image-drawing operations of one image-drawing operation tree corresponding to one particular rich text medium to obtain a second medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium for each particular rich text medium,
the step of sending a scenario comprises the step of:
sending the second group of image-drawing operations of the image-drawing operation trees, the second objects of the particular rich text media, the second medium expanding time-lengths of the particular rich text media, the scenario and the first medium expanding time-lengths of the particular rich text media to the title reproducing terminal,
the step of sending a medium expanding request comprises the step of:
sending a medium expanding request, which indicates to expand one particular rich text medium to a display image and to send the display image of the particular rich text medium to the title reproducing terminal at the display time of the particular rich text medium, to the server at a first specific time earlier than the display time of each particular rich text medium by the first medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium,
the step of converting one particular rich text medium comprises the steps of:
expanding the first objects of each particular rich text medium to a plurality of first drawing images suitable to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal at the first specific time according to the first group of image-drawing operations of one image-drawing operation tree in the server;
converting the first drawing images of each particular rich text medium to a first display image suitable to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal by combining the first drawing images in the server;
expanding the second objects of each particular rich text medium to a plurality of second drawing images suitable to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal according to the second group of image-drawing operations of one image-drawing operation tree in the title reproducing terminal at a second specific time earlier than the display time of the particular rich text medium by the second medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium; and
converting the second drawing images of each particular rich text medium to a second display image suitable to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal by combining the second drawing images in the title reproducing terminal, and
the step of sending the display image comprises the steps of:
sending the first display image of each particular rich text medium from the server to the title reproducing terminal at the display time of the particular rich text medium; and
combining the first and second display images of each particular rich text medium to produce a combined display image for each particular rich text medium.
In the above steps, the image-drawing operations of each image-drawing operation tree are divided into a first group of image-drawing operations and a second group of image-drawing operations, first objects of each particular rich text medium are expanded to first drawing images according to the first group of image-drawing operations in the first medium expanding time-length in the server, and second objects of each particular rich text medium are expanded to second drawing images according to the second group of image-drawing operations in the second medium expanding time-length in the title reproducing terminal. Because a medium expanding time-length of all objects of each particular rich text medium is equal to the sum of the first and second medium expanding time-lengths, the first and second medium expanding time-lengths are shorter than the medium expanding time-length of all objects. Therefore, a time-length required to expand each particular rich text medium to a display image can be shortened.
To achieve the second object, it is also preferred that the step of calculating a medium expanding time-length comprise the steps of:
calculating a medium expanding time-length required to expand each particular rich text medium of the particular multimedia title to a display image suitable to one output format for each of a plurality of output formats;
storing the medium expanding time-lengths of the particular rich text media in a first storage medium for each of the output formats;
checking whether or not the medium expanding time-lengths of the particular rich text media corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal are stored in the first storage medium;
decomposing each particular rich text medium into a plurality of objects in cases where any medium expanding time-length corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal is not stored in the first storage medium;
preparing an image-drawing operation tree of a plurality of image-drawing operations, required to convert the objects of one particular rich text medium into a plurality of drawing images according to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal, for each particular rich text medium;
expanding each object of one particular rich text medium to a drawing image suitable to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal according to one image-drawing operation of one image-drawing operation tree corresponding to the particular rich text medium for each particular rich text medium;
storing the drawing images of the objects of the particular rich text media corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal in a second storage medium; and
setting a medium expanding time-length, required to expand each particular rich text medium of the particular multimedia title to a display image suitable to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal, to zero, and
the step of converting one particular rich text medium comprises the steps of:
reading out the drawing images stored in the second storage medium; and
combining the drawing images of the objects of one particular rich text medium into a display image of the particular rich text medium for each particular rich text medium.
In the above steps, in cases where each object of particular rich text media is expanded to a drawing image suitable to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal because any medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text media corresponding to the particular output format of the title reproducing terminal is not stored in the first storage medium, the drawing images of the objects of the particular rich text media are stored in a second storage medium. Therefore, when display images of the particular rich text media are requested, a time-length required to produce the display images of the particular rich text media can be shortened by using the stored drawing images.
The first object is also achieved by the provision of a picture information providing system, comprising:
a server for providing a particular multimedia title as picture information; and
a title reproducing terminal for reproducing the particular multimedia title provided from the server,
the server comprising:
picture information storing means for storing a plurality of particular rich text media of the particular multimedia title and a scenario specifying a display time of each particular rich text medium;
medium expanding means for expanding each particular rich text medium stored in the picture information storing means to a display image suitable to an output format and calculating a medium expanding time-length, required to expand one particular rich text medium to one display image suitable to one output format, for each particular rich text medium;
expanding time-length storing means for storing the medium expanding time-lengths of the particular rich text media calculated by the medium expanding means for each of a plurality of output formats; and
server control means for controlling the medium expanding means to calculate a medium expanding time-length of one particular rich text medium corresponding to a particular output format for each particular rich text medium in advance or in response to an expanding time-length request sent from the title reproducing terminal, sending the scenario stored in the picture information storing means and the medium expanding time-lengths of the particular rich text media corresponding to the particular output format to the title reproducing terminal in response to the expanding time-length request, controlling the medium expanding means to convert one particular rich text medium to a display image suitable to the particular output format each time a medium expanding request sent from the title reproducing terminal is received, and sending the display image of one particular rich text medium to the title reproducing terminal at the display time of the particular rich text medium in response to each medium expanding request, and
the title reproducing terminal comprising:
scheduling means for recognizing the display time of each particular rich text medium according to the scenario sent from the server and specifying a specific time earlier than the display time of one particular rich text medium by the medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium sent from the server for each particular rich text medium;
title control means for sending the expanding time-length request to the server, receiving the scenario and the medium expanding time-lengths of the particular rich text media corresponding to the particular output format from the server, sending one medium expanding request, which indicates to expand one particular rich text medium to a display image and to send the display image of the particular rich text medium to the title reproducing terminal at the display time of the particular rich text medium, to the server at the specific time of the particular rich text medium specified by the scheduling means for each particular rich text medium, and receiving the display image of each particular rich text medium at the display time of the particular rich text medium from the server; and
medium displaying means for displaying the display image of one particular rich text medium received by the title control means at the display time of the particular rich text medium for each particular rich text medium to reproduce the particular multimedia title.
In the above configuration, when a user desires to reproduce a particular multimedia title at a particular output format in the title reproducing terminal of the user, an expanding time-length request is sent to the server. In the server, in cases where a medium expanding time-length of each particular rich text medium corresponding to the particular output format is not stored in the expanding time-length storing means, a medium expanding time-length of each particular rich text medium corresponding to the particular output format is calculated by the medium expanding means under the control of the server control means. In contrast, in cases where a medium expanding time-length of each particular rich text medium corresponding to the particular output format is stored in the expanding time-length storing means, the medium expanding time-length of each particular rich text medium corresponding to the particular output format is read out from the expanding time-length storing means. Thereafter, the medium expanding time-lengths calculated by the medium expanding means or read out from the expanding time-length storing means and a scenario specifying a display time of each particular rich text medium are sent to the title reproducing terminal.
In the title reproducing terminal, to display a display image of each particular rich text medium at its display time, it is required to start an expanding operation for each particular rich text medium at a specific time earlier than its display time by the medium expanding time-length of the particular rich text medium. Therefore, the specific time for each particular rich text medium is specified by the scheduling means, and a medium expanding request for requesting the expanding of each particular rich text medium is sent to the server at its specific time.
In the server, each particular rich text medium is converted to a display image suitable to the particular output format by the medium expanding means under the control of the server control means, and the display image of each particular rich text medium is sent to the title reproducing terminal at the display time of the particular rich text medium.
In the title reproducing terminal, the display image of each particular rich text medium is displayed by the medium displaying means at its display time.
Accordingly, each particular rich text medium of the particular multimedia title can be reliably displayed just at its display time, so that the particular multimedia title is reproduced.